Fink II U-Boot-Bunker

Fink II was a massive U-boat bunker built between 1941 and 1944 on the grounds of the Deutsche Werft shipyard in Hamburg-Finkenwerder. As a so-called wet bunker, it served primarily as a repair and assembly facility for U-boats, and new boats were also launched here. With room for fifteen U-boats and a structure built from 130,000 cubic meters of reinforced concrete, it was one of the largest facilities of its kind in Germany. During World War II, forced laborers and prisoners of war were increasingly put to work here. In April 1945, the bunker was heavily damaged in Allied air raids, with heavy bombs tearing holes in its thick roof. At the same time, the structure served as an air-raid shelter for thousands of civilians who lived near the harbor facilities.

After the war, British troops blew up the bunker in 1945 but were unable to remove it completely. Over the following decades, the ruin was gradually dismantled and finally buried completely in the 1980s. Today, the Fink II U-Boat Bunker Memorial stands on this site, commemorating the victims of National Socialism and the history of the place. The memorial opened in 2006 as part of the development of Rüschpark and was designed by the Hamburg architects Anja Bremer and Beate Kirsch.

Today, you can get a sense of the former bunker's dimensions from the black crushed-stone markers set into the ground. The memorial is designed with artistic elements and informative panels that explain the historical context of U-boat armament and forced labor. The site is therefore not just a technical relic but an important place of remembrance and reflection on Hamburg's wartime history.